Category: God: The Father, the Son Jesus Christ, & the Holy Ghost

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 KJV).

Let us consider one of the most misunderstood and most ridiculed accounts presented in the Holy Bible….

Read a portion of Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2: “[1] Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, [2] And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. [3] For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. [4] Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. [5] The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. [6] I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God….”

Jonah cried “out of the belly of hell” (verse 2). God has “brought up [Jonah’s] life from corruption” (verse 6). This sounds like someone dying and living again, does it not? In fact, it corresponds to Christ’s own death and resurrection in today’s Scripture! According to Luke 16:19-31, Hell was in two compartments in time past: believers’ souls were confined to Abraham’s bosom and comfort, whereas unsaved souls were enclosed in flames and torment. Jesus’ soul and the believing thief’s soul went to the comfort side when they died—a place also known as “paradise” in Luke 23:43, whose occupants have since relocated to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2,4). The point is, Jonah died and went to “hell” (paradise side), perfectly matching Jesus in “hell” (paradise side; see Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:22-31).

When Jonah died and lived again, he was really serving as a type (preview, picture, foreshadow) of Jesus dying and living again….

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 KJV).

Let us consider one of the most misunderstood and most ridiculed accounts presented in the Holy Bible….

It has been repeatedly assumed Jonah lived in the fish’s (or whale’s) belly for three days and three nights. However, see the Bible for yourself: “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” Jonah 1:17 simply states Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Scripture does not read, “And Jonah lived / was alive in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

At this point, perhaps a simple illustration will suffice. If I claim someone was “in the grave for 20 years,” am I implying he or she has lived in that tomb for 20 years? No one exercising a little common sense would misunderstand my words. Likewise, although Jonah was in the creature’s stomach all three days and three nights, he was not necessarily living for the entire duration. People have made an assumption regarding the Bible—and it is a wrong one (just another example of silly presumptions about Scripture!). Two lines of proof can be offered Jonah actually died with respect to this strange sea creature (whose identity we will discuss later).

Firstly, in today’s Scripture, the Lord Jesus pointed to Jonah’s experience and connected it to His own death. Did not the Lord stay dead for three days and three nights? In keeping with the analogy, Jonah would have also perished. Remember, study Jonah chapter 1. The Prophet was tossed overboard in the Mediterranean Sea. Either he drowned before the creature swallowed him, or he died shortly after he entered the animal’s stomach. The point is, Jonah was dead in the creature’s belly.

Secondly, if you read Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2, the Prophet himself alludes to his decease. This part of the discussion will take some analysis, so we must carefully walk through it….

Sunday, November 12, 2023

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 KJV).

Let us consider one of the most misunderstood and most ridiculed accounts presented in the Holy Bible….

As a trained geologist (holding a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Earth science), I am quite familiar with the tendency of Bible haters and Bible skeptics to resort to exalting and clinging to whatever “empirical data” that can be uncovered to justify distancing themselves from the “superstitions of religious tradition.” Except on rare occasions, though, the Holy Bible has not actually been given a fair hearing. As a simple illustration, I remember the confession of an honest atheist long ago: having never really read the Bible, he frequently argued with Christians about it! Another example is how people grow up “in church” hearing all sorts of ridiculous and wrong assumptions about Scripture. By the time they become adults, they are on a hostile “crusade” to publicize why they are no longer “church members!”

One of my university science professors (familiar with Scripture) complained to me how “science could not explain” the Bible’s miracles; therefore, he did not believe those miracles actually occurred. Instead, he contended, there was a natural cause for each alleged “miracle”—in effect, nothing miraculous really happened. While that sounds convincing on the surface, he surely knew how science has limitations. We scientists have such a poor understanding of how the laws of nature operate. Even what little we know is subject to change, as scientific ideas are revised or discarded through repeated observation and experimentation. Any scientist could live 500,000 lifetimes and still not fully comprehend or describe the phenomena on our tiny planet—not to mention all the events on all celestial bodies (whose total number exceeds all the grains of sand on every beach of Earth)! When someone boldly declares “science has disproven the Bible,” I can personally assure you this is wishful thinking. You need not worry about them or their overconfidence in the frail human mind or the faulty lab equipment!

With that said, let us get back to Jonah, the whale/fish, and the contempt regarding it….